Thursday, January 13, 2011

"All animals are equal, some are more equal" George Orwell, Animal Farm.

Once upon a time in a lush green flourishing farm the privileged pigs ruled supreme. They enjoyed shamelessly the benefits bestowed upon them by virtue of their birth into a particular clan. This prestige however came with a price. As Spiderman rightly realised "With great power, came great responsibilities", the privileged pigs too had to naturally undertake all the duties destined in their direction. Whether they willed for it or not, they had to assume the roles of high priests, feudal landlords, learned scholars and competent slave drivers. Now to many, this may seem a comparatively gifted life, but only those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth knew the burden of constantly holding it there. A senile senior pig once exclaimed, "I would any day let my slaves take up my daily duties, but alas these innocent simpletons would find it too overwhelming to understand the intricacies of dispensing religious doctrines, handling economic resources and managing acres of real estate. You see, my privileged position comes with the great service i am providing to the farm community which my servants are practically incapable off!"

In this manner the cunning pigs convinced the rest of the animals outside their own sect that the deprivation and de-human/animalisation meted out to them was one that they completely deserved by virtue of their birth into a naturally incompetent and unintelligent sect of the farm society. They manipulated them to be content in adhering to their intellectually superior masters. Gradually they were lead to believe it was an honour to serve their benevolent masters, who had sacrificed so much for the smooth functioning of the farm society. It was indoctrinated into their minds that their existence was so lowly; it was easy for them to pollute their masters and disrupt their purity merely by their presence or contact. They were bound to maintain a safe distance from the privileged pigs and places of worship, to always speak in servile tones and to never ever question the dictates of their Godly masters. Their sole purpose in life was to make the lives of their lords as hassle free as possible. They readily took up the menial jobs of servant maids, farm hands, washer men and such like.

Life was running smooth, admittedly more so for the privileged pigs. Every one in the farm knew their roles, responsibilities and positions. But then suddenly on fine summer morning, the Swans started invading the farm. They were pristine white creatures, with a grace, sophistication and beauty that was unmatched and unseen of till that day. They came in the pretext of developing business relationships with the privileged pigs of the farm. They wanted the spices and the rich produce of the farm to take back to their cold, barren lands across the mighty oceans. In exchange they gifted the privileged pigs with riches and never before seen contraptions, which they claimed were the benefits of some kind of revolution in their lands.The pigs reveled at the marvels these white Swans or Whites in short, bought with them.

Of course the privileged pigs were seasoned thieves reaping the benefits of a blind society for centuries. Only the Whites were much smarter, and knew to steal from the thieves! They were schemers of the first order and came with an agenda to eventually dominate and evangelize.They diverted the attention of the privileged pigs into fighting their contemporaries in the neighboring farms. They offered superior artillery power in exchange for rights to trade, rule and govern certain portions of the farm. Before any one could make sense of anything, the Whites were in charge of all the farms, all over the land!

The Whites ruled supreme now and the privileged pigs were not so privileged any more. The fully functional and totally one sided-ly beneficial social order that the pigs had so carefully structured, began to crumble with that cursed system of English education the Whites propagated. To the utter mortification of the privileged pigs, education was no longer a strictly guarded secret. Every dove, dog and donkey had access to it! "Surely if its so open a system, then the English education is deplorable" the pigs uttered in unison. They were content studying their sacredly gaurded Vedas in Sanskrit. The less privileged animals however made the best of the English education and with their competence in the language rose to assist the Whites in running the farms and gained administrative power.

Undoubtedly the privileged pigs were slowly but surely loosing their edge. By the time they realised the power that came with English education it was sadly way too late. The less privileged animals were now refined beings frightfully aware of their rights and deprivations. They planned to rebel and restore equality in the farm, but first they had to smoke out the Whites before dreaming of any kind of authority. Eventually, both the privileged and the less privileged animals joined forces to oust their common enemy - the Whites. After decades of struggle and innumerable sacrifices independence was restored in the farm and it was joyously declared the Republic of Farmindia.

More than half a century later the Farmindia of today is markedly different from the feudal farm of old. The power politics has shifted and the privileged pigs now lead a paltry existence. The policies for upliftment of the less privileged animals, adopted after independence, has simultaneously lead to the steady deprivation of the once hale and hearty pigs. Inevitably, the present generation of pigs have to bare the brunt of the glory days of their ancestors. The reservation policies and quotas implemented almost half a century ago, is working smooth and steady in favour of everyone except the poor pigs. Their destiny remains to slog extra hard, score double the marks and yet remain in perennial uncertainty of gaining a government job. And if they dare complain about injustice or raise a finger against incompetency among those in authority solely by means of their genius in manipulating the quotas, they are inevitably branded anti-social Castists and have to face the wrath of Crusaders-of-Social-Justice-to-Select-Sections-of-Society.

"In the Republic of Farmindia, all animals are equal" the national leaders may claim from rooftops. But the universal truth remains "All animals are equal, some are more equal."
Suck it up!